Uproar in Copenhagen over `leaked` draft

Copenhagen: The G-77 group of countries and China on Wednesday blasted a Danish draft proposal for an agreement on climate change, saying it "threatens the success" of the ongoing Copenhagen summit.

The draft text, which was leaked, is a "serious and unfortunate development. It is a major violation that threatens the success of the Copenhagen negotiating process," said Sudan`s Lumumba Stanislas Dia Ping, who heads the G-77 group.
The G-77 and China called on the Prime Minister of Denmark, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, not to make any such further attempts and also affirmed that the group would not walk out of Copenhagen and work towards an equitable outcome till the last minutes of the conference.

UN climate change chief Yvo de Boer said this draft was on a decision paper put forward by Danish Prime Minister.
"This was an informal paper ahead of the conference given to a number of people for the purposes of consultations. The only formal texts in the UN process are the ones tabled by the Chairs of this Copenhagen conference at the behest of the Parties," he added.

Di-Aping also confirmed that BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) had circulated the BASIC draft as a counter to the Danish proposal, and that this draft was being considered but had not been officially introduced.

The chairperson noted that the Danish draft detracted from both the substance and procedure of previously agreed agreements under the United Nations Framework Convention and the Bali Action Plan that puts all binding mitigation commitment solely on developed nations and also requires industrial countries to provide financial and technology to developing nations.

The text has been slammed for throwing away the balance of obligations between developed and developing countries on issues like mitigation, protection of intellectual property rights and financing.

"It sets up a financing an technology mechanism that ensues the flow of finance form South to North through market mechanisms," he explained, adding the text divided developing countries into "vulnerable" and "culpable" as well as "poor" and "most vulnerable."

It is built "to preserve the economic supremacy of advance countries and "to rob developing countries of just applicable and fair share of atmospheric space," according to Di-Aping.

On the cap of two degree Celsius, Di-Aping told journalists, that this figure had never been accepted by the African group and had gained momentum because "the G8 though it would be feasible" warning that this cap would lead to the disappearance of Small Island States and would result in the misery of more than a hundred countries.

The chairperson also highlighted that the Danish draft did not consider any of the proposals from the developing countries especially the notion of "common but differentiated" responsibility that is the backbone of the UNFCCC agreement, which undermined two years of negotiations.

"Perhaps it is the Danish idea that developing nations are not competent and knowledgeable enough to articulate their views," he said. "The strategic intent of this text is aimed at superimposing a solution."

The G77 held the host of the Copenhagen negotiations, Rasmussen personally responsible for the production of the document, stating that it is "very unfortunate that the man trusted to lead the process will fail."

"We call upon the Prime Minister of this country to refrain from such attempts," he added.

When asked if the G77 and China would walk out of the negotiations in light of these recent developments, the chairperson firmly stated that "G77 member states will not walk out of these consultations because we cannot afford a failure at Copenhagen."

Negotiators from 192 countries have come to Copenhagen to hammer out a climate change treaty as the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.